HOUSTON– A legal battle over a lack of air conditioning in Texas prisons is bringing together advocates of the issue with a current inmate who says his health is being endangered by the state’s hot prisons — the former funeral director whose murder case inspired the movie ‘Bernie’.
Attorneys for Texas prisoners on Monday asked to join a federal lawsuit filed last year by Bernie Tiede, who claimed his life is in danger because he was housed in a suffocating jail cell without air conditioning. He was later transferred to an air-conditioned cell.
Tiede, 65, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, claims he continues to have serious health problems after suffering what appears to be a mini-stroke due to the extreme heat in his cell. Only about 30% of the 100 prison units in Texas are fully air-conditioned, while the rest have partial or no air conditioning. Advocates claim that temperatures in Texas prisons often exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius). Tiede is housed in the Estelle Unit, which is partially air-conditioned.
Attorneys from several prisoner rights groups, including Texas Prisons Community Advocates and Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, filed a motion in federal court in Austin asking to join and expand Tiede’s lawsuit so that it would affect all prisoners in Texas.
The groups and Tiede are asking a federal judge to find that the Texas prison system’s current policy to address excessive heat is unconstitutional and requires the prison system to maintain temperatures in housing and occupied areas between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit ( 18 and 29 degrees Celsius). Celsius).
“Bernie and the tens of thousands of prisoners remain at risk of death from heat-related illnesses and being exposed to this brutal, torturous condition,” said Richard Linklater, who directed the 2011 dark comedy inspired by the case of Tiede, during a virtual press conference Monday.
Tiede is serving a prison sentence of 99 years to life for the murder of Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy widow, in Carthage. Prosecutors say Tiede gave herself lavish gifts with Nugent’s money before he fatally shot her in 1996 and then kept her body in a freezer for nine months.
Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, said her agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Hernandez said two recently created web pages highlight TDCJ’s efforts to install more air conditioning and explain the various measures the agency is taking to reduce the effects of high temperatures on inmates and employees. TDCJ said this includes providing fans and cooling towels and allowing access to respite areas where inmates can cool off.
“The core mission of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is to protect the public, our employees, and the inmates in our custody,” the web page on air conditioning construction projects reads.
TDCJ has said there have been no heat-related deaths in the state’s prisons since 2012.
On Monday, advocacy groups pushed back against those claims, saying that increasingly warm temperatures, including last summer’s heat wave, have likely resulted in or contributed to the deaths of prisoners.
A November 2022 study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard Universities found that 13%, or 271, of deaths that occurred between 2001 and 2019 in Texas prisons without universal air conditioning could be attributed to extreme heat during hot months.
“As summer approaches in our state, the threat of extreme heat reappears, reminding us of the urgent need for action,” said Marci Marie Simmons, of Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, who has experienced the stifling prison heat endured as a former prisoner.
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